Economic Policy News

Paraguay has solidified its status as a “moderately free” economy, according to The Heritage Foundation’s recently released 2020 Index of Economic Freedom. Ranked 80th out of 180 countries worldwide, Paraguay is the 15th-freest country in the Western Hemisphere. At first glance, Paraguay appears an unlikely prospect to stand out as a notable emerging market. In…

Estonia is a shining example of why freedom matters. Since the fall of the Soviet Union, this tiny northern Baltic country that shares a border with Russia has made huge progress in implementing democracy and economic freedom and in developing a strong national defense. Estonia has aligned itself with the West—particularly the United States—and since…

It's economic freedom that will save the earth. Apart from health care, no other big government policies and actions are more intrusive and economically distortionary than environmental regulations. Rather than relying on civil society, free markets, and a free press to ensure environmental quality and safeguards, a myriad bureaucrats and agencies in governments and international…

As our national lockdown drags on, Americans seem less and less inclined to move swiftly toward societal reopening. Perhaps that’s due to the consistent media focus on the risks of reopening. Perhaps that’s also due to the psychological comfort of the status quo: When we’ve been made to feel safe in our home, it’s difficult…

Kazakhstan recorded the fifth-largest gain in economic freedom of any country in the world over the past year, according to The Heritage Foundation’s 2020 Index of Economic Freedom. The country’s score (69.6 on a 0-100 point scale) puts it on the threshold of earning the index’s coveted “mostly free” designation. Ranked as having the 39th-freest…

The National Governors Association recently asked Congress for a bailout of $500 billion in addition to the more than $200 billion included in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. The money sought by the governors would be “unrestricted,” meaning its use need not be tied directly to COVID-19, the disease caused by…

In her recent column, Heritage Foundation President Kay C. James offered a timely message on why economic freedom matters more than ever. As she emphasized: The debate in the United States over whether to move away from free markets and toward socialism may change dramatically as the latest coronavirus spreads throughout the world. That’s because…

Ranked 60th in the world (out of 180 countries), Slovakia’s economic freedom score increased slightly in The Heritage Foundation’s 2020 edition of the Index of Economic Freedom. But the country’s economy remains stalled in the index’s “Moderately Free” category, where it has been for a decade. After it gained independence from the former Czechoslovakia in…

Governments around the world are responding to the coronavirus epidemic with a variety of measures that have the potential to curtail economic activity. It’s vital that such actions be temporary and of as short a duration as possible. Government restrictions and regulations have a tendency to outlast—sometimes for decades—the crises they were implemented to address….

The U.S. economy added an impressive 225,000 jobs in January as low unemployment rates continued for all Americans.  The new jobs report shatters the experts’ predictions and continues to make the case that, because of good economic policy, America is flourishing.  This report shows that since President Donald Trump was elected in November 2016, employment…

I have been teaching economics since 1967—40 years of it at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. During that interval, economic reality has not changed. Just as Galileo’s law about the independent influence of gravity on falling objects has not changed, neither have the fundamental principles of economics. Economics is fun and simple. It’s made…

The Congressional Budget Office has released its budget and economic projections for fiscal years 2020-2030. The latest report confirms what the Congressional Budget Office has been telling lawmakers for years: The nation is hurtling toward a spending-driven debt crisis. Without major reforms to mandatory spending programs, it is not a question of if, but when,…

In his State of the State address on Jan. 8, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo likened 21st-century gig-economy corporations to late 18th- and early 19th-century sweatshops, the latter characterized as such for their poor working conditions, exploitation of workers, and violations of labor laws. By asserting that entirely optional gig and contract-based work “is exploitive,…

Amid the drama surrounding impeachment, both parties came together on one area of shared support: spending enormous amounts of taxpayer dollars and adding to the $23.1 trillion national debt. Congress had little time to properly review fiscal 2020 spending bills, which weighed in at more than 2,000 pages of clunky text. The legislation contained a…

Monica Crowley, Treasury Department assistant secretary of public affairs, joins the podcast to talk about the “incredible economic boom” that followed the tax reform passed in 2017. Read the lightly edited transcript, posted below, or listen on the podcast: Rachel del Guidice: The Daily Signal Podcast is coming to you from the U.S. Treasury Department…